I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young-ha Kim (Harvest Original)

In the fast-paced, high-urban landscape of Seoul, C and K are brothers who have fallen in love with the same woman—Se-yeon—who tears at both of them as they all try desperately to find real connection in an atomized world. A spectral, nameless narrator haunts the edges of their lives as he tells of his work helping the lost and hurting find escape through suicide. Dreamlike and beautiful, the South Korea brought forth in this novel is cinematic in its urgency and its reflection of contemporary life everywhere—far beyond the boundaries of the Korean peninsula. Recalling the emotional tension of Milan Kundera and the existential anguish of Bret Easton Ellis, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself achieves its author’s greatest wish—to show Korean literature as part of an international tradition. Young-ha Kim is a young master, the leading literary voice of his generation.

YOUNG-HA KIM's Black Flower won Korea's Dong-in Prize; his first novel, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself was highly acclaimed upon publication in the United States. He has earned a reputation as the most talented and prolific Korean writer of his generation, publishing five novels and three collections of short stories.

Unrated Critic Reviews for I Have the Right to Destroy Myself

Kirkus Reviews

The endorsement of suicide is itself banality incarnate, as are such gloomy pronouncements as the woman’s petulant complaint that “people who can’t kill can’t ever truly love someone.” But the author is a stylish, inventive writer who builds eerie momentum out of cryptic conversations and deliber...

Entertainment Weekly

Detached and methodical (and, perhaps, a touch insane), the nameless narrator of this slim volume spends his hours seeking out the sad and lonely souls who haunt modern Seoul, offering some of them the means to end their worldly existences  he's like the weary angel from Wings of Desire, onl...